£137 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
c rffiC737 

Chap... Copyright No. 

SheH-jii2. 5 b 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SONNETS 



SONNETS 



/ 



ALBERT J. RUPP 




BOSTON 

ARENA PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Copley Square 

1896 



H g 



tS. 



'2737 



Copyrighted, : 



ALBERT J. RUPP. 



All Rights Reserved. 



) 



Arena Press. 



, / 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

On the Evils of the Day 7 

To the Ballot 9 

On Aristocracy 10 

The Objects of the Socialist 11 

To a Rich Heiress 12 

On a Martyr in Prison 13 

On Rank 15 

On New York City 16 

On Unselfishness and Selfishness ... 17 

To Happiness 18 

On Suicide 19 

On the Future 21 

On Time Misspent 22 

On Prisons 23 

On Dress 24 

On Homes 26 

On Charity 28 

On a Lady's Hand 29 

The Cause I Plead 30 

On Utopists 31 

On Business 33 

On the Laborer 34 

On Socialism 35 

On Love 36 

On Eyesores 37 

On Wahlverwandtschaft 39 

On the Farmer 40 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

On Speculation 42 

On History 43 

On War 45 

On Marriage . .. , 46 

On Kings 47 

On Criminals 48 

On Flying Machines 50 

On Desire . 51 

On Law and Justice 52 

On our Modern Lovers 53 

On Right 55 



SONNETS. 



ON THE EVILS OF THE DAY. 

I raise my voice because my brain's on 
fire 

About the open evils of the clay ; 

When scoundrels hold our politics in 
sway, 

And ruin morals for their base desire 

Of lucre ; when, because a man's a liar, 

He's worthiest to administer the right ; 

When liberticides are cherished for their 
might, 

And honored for the meanness they in- 
spire. 

The times are foul when gold can pay for 

wrongs, 
And law can punish only some for crime ; 
When dissipation poisons that sweet time 
Of thoughtless youth; when there are 

idle throngs 

7 



8 gmmtfi. 

In poverty, and busy few in wealth ; 
When most success depends on greatest 

stealth ; 
When man will sell his vote and bind in 

thongs 
The birthright which alone to him belongs. 



Jtaratt*. 



TO THE BALLOT. 

Master invention ! Lever of liberty ! 
Weapon divine which blood flowed long 

to form ! 
Our country's face is blasted by a storm 
Of ruin, causing woe and misery, 
Because base men have prostituted thee. 
With money and with lies hast thou been 

bought, 
Until our holy politics are brought 
To such disgrace as shames society. 

How long wilt thou be used by paltry 

knaves 
To curse instead of bless this lovely land ? 
Must Freedom still raise an imploring 

hand, 
And shriek against that power which lusts 

and craves 
To have despotic mastery, and stand 
Imperial above a race made slaves, 
Because thy use men cannot understand ? 



10 <§OUttft0. 



ON AKISTOCKACY. 

Kank growth of superstition : cancers, 

sores 
Upon the Public, draining for their ease 
Its vital blood ; base parasites who seize 
From honest labor ; robbers to whose 

doors 
The robbed pay tribute ; murderers whose 

powers 
Kill off the poor to charm their luxury ; 
Such is the glorious aristocracy 
Which governs this sad, struggling earth 

of ours. 

For carriages, suppers, gambling, yachts, 
and dress, 

To please their slightest whims the labor- 
ers pay ; 

Dishonestly they yawn their lives away, 

For which the masses toil and acquiesce. 

They vie in all the fashions of excess, 

And levy these with lash, and jail, and 
halter ; 

They scorn the noblest minds that seek to 
alter 

Their base condition into usefulness. 



jfouuet*. 11 



THE OBJECTS OF THE SOCIALIST. 

To abolish" all the wrongs of poverty ; 

To join the nations in a brotherhood 

Of happiness ; to make the people good 

In every luxury of equality ; 

To crush the idols of plutocracy 

And break the laws by which they live 

and steal ; 
To teach ideals by which we can feel 
The love of knowledge, truth, and liberty. 

To kill that growing curse, monopoly ; 
To give to every man what is his own ; 
To let no few men rule the earth alone ; 
To encourage and befriend prosperity ; 
To leave no cause for sane dishonesty ; 
To educate, develop, and assist 
The world into a true Democracy : 
These are the objects of the Socialist. 



12 jfotttltt*. 



TO A EICH HEIRESS. 

Gather the bones of those your wealth 

has slain, 
And hang them on you for your jewelry ; 
And, for a sensible perfumery, 
Collect the laborers' sweat, conceived in 

pain, 
And pour it over you ; and to obtain 
Red lips and ruddy cheeks, apply the blood 
That poor men spill for you in servitude ; 
And then your pride will be sincere and 

plain. 

Thus does the honest savage, but you sit 
A perfect type of beauty, grace, and love, 
Well-bred, well-read, with all that does 

behove 
A noble woman ; while your acts commit 
The poor to suffering, and death, and toil, 
At sight of which your senses should re- 
coil 
With horror. Oh! my country! why 

permit 
Atrocities like this thy peace to spoil % 



£omwi0. 13 



ON A MAETYE IN PEISON. 

A noble motive in a noble man, 

Though cowards lock him tight in prison 

bars, 
His mind is still with freedom and the 

stars ; 
Though ignorance brand him foolish, still 

he can 
Be its undoer ; though vile liars plan 
To drown him in a sea of calumny, 
His breasting this is immortality ; 
For life makes martyrs ever in its van. 

The walls that hold him may be high and 

strong, 
The men who guard him may be quick 

and firm, 
But what can stand against the mighty 

storm, 
Which now is brewing, to relieve the 

wrong 
Imposed on that innumerable throng 



14 JtottMtiBi. 

Of which he is ? The right is with the 

might, 
And they are sure to conquer in the fight, 
And free their heroes who have suffered 

long. 



^onntt$. 15 



ON KANK. 

The tiny pismire and the little bee 
Obey their natures, and promote their 

kind ; 
But man, perverted by some rank, is blind 
To all his instincts of humanity. 
He caters to some stupid vanity 
By slaying his co-workers, while he plays 
Some petty role to grace his ears with 

praise 
Under the name of sport or charity. 

Not in sound, healthy brains, or worthi- 
ness, 
Does rank excel, but in unnatural taste 
And every fad or fashion which will waste 
At dearest cost. It poisons usefulness 
By crushing all the world for its success ; 
It is the curse of these our bleeding times, 
The cause and object of all woe and 

crimes, 
The barrier 'twixt our race and happiness. 



16 gtmutt. 



ON NEW YOKK CITY. 

Here so-called civilization, high and bold, 
Compels my wondering mind to hear and 

see 
A rising mass of rank humanity, 
Which seethes and boils in feverish thirst 

for gold. 
Here is my country's honor bought and 

sold, 
And sly hypocrisy has rich reward. 
Here wealth is counted worth, and poor 

regard 
Is paid for any acts by love controlled. 

Here men are mean for empty vanity, 
And cute to deal by flattery and fraud ; 
Here money-priests adore their money-god, 
And pile unnumbered temples to the sky. 
The progress of the mighty hour is slow, 
The aim of living is depraved and low, 
The Zeitgeist is corrupt with knavery. 



Jtotmfltou 17 



ON UNSELFISHNESS AND SELFISH- 
NESS. 

He who indulges in the darkest crimes, 
Who Avars with rigor 'gainst the common 

good, 
Who fosters wickedness with his own 

blood, 
And is a prosperous damner of the times, 
Who preaches immorality, and climbs 
To heights of sin, is an unselfish man. 
'Tis ignorance at the bottom, from which 

can 
Come nothing but decay and death be- 
times. 

But he loves himself who loves others too, 

Who selfishly develops all his means, 

In writing books, or thinking out 

machines, 
Which help mankind its purpose to pursue ; 
Who works for others that they may 

accrue 
His benefits, who takes that he may give, 
Who helps his fellows live that he may live, 
Who teaches truth so that he may be true. 

2 



18 gtmnttti. 



TO HAPPINESS. 

Not in the amount of matter, but of mind ; 

Not in being served, but being servant ; 

Not with the bad, and base, and ignorant, 

But with the wise and good, and pure and 
kind. 

Not with the idler who is conscience-blind, 

Nor Avith the schemer who is conscience- 
dead, 

But with the man, sincere in heart and 
head, 

Who labors hard to make himself refined. 

We live and toil and struggle but for thee ; 
Thou art the aim of all our acts and deeds ; 
Thou art the fundament of all our creeds, 
Of all our hope in immortality. 
Pursuit of thee is the pursuit of good, 
And all our duties are what life has 

showed 
Us how to get thee in the most degree. 



£omwt*. 19 



ON SUICIDE. 

When some gay fellow with a courtly 

mien, 
Has won the first love of a pure, fair maid, 
And dashed it in the mire, can she evade 
Her hopeless feelings ? Can she try to wean 
Her sad and weary heart, grown sick and 

lean, 
Back to its healthy state, without mad pain 
And pangs of misery in her throbbing 

brain \ 
Then who can blame her if she leave the 

scene % 

Let heartless fools condemn in wild ha- 
rangue, 

Let rogues and panderers joke and have 
their fun ; 

The wise will pity her for what was done, 

And praise the bravery which undid the 
pang. 

Oh! age of shame! such guiltless blood 
will hang 



20 jfrtttttt*. 

Upon thy history till people see 
How thy vile customs martyr probity, 
And wrong the innocent with ruthless 
fang. 



jennet!*, 21 



ON THE FUTUEE. 

Out of these crowds of foreign tongue and 

blood, 
Shall spring a race whose loftiness shall be 
Unequalled in this world's great history. 
The different tribes of Europe which have 

stood 
Apart so long, shall here in brotherhood 
Be all united in one common cause, 
Under one flag of state, one code of laws, 
To crush the bad and propagate the good. 

Then shall men live and die to love and 

bless, 
And hate with horror gold and ignorance. 
Worth shall be measured by intelligence, 
And fashion by degree of usefulness. 
Then shall men be strong geniuses in art, 
And culture find its standard in the heart, 
And right shall rule because of righteous- 
ness. 



22 $0tM*i*U 

ON TIME MISSPENT. 

Oh ! what a mist of ignorance clouds that 

man 
Who barters time for money ! What 

detracts 
His mind from worthy things to scurvy acts 
So dissolute \ What value is the span 
Of life to him who lives to scheme and 

plan 
To pocket such a mass of bloody truck ? 
What shameful motive in him calls this 

"pluck" 
And makes him glory in his lethal ban ? 

And yet the world is rife with such as he, 
Who work for sham, and squander time in 

shame ; 
Who stunt the nation's growth, and have 

no aim 
For doing good ; who preach dishonest} 7 
In word and deed ; who practice perfidy 
To Nature's laws. To such as these dear 

time 
Is valuable for gathering dirt and slime, 
With which to try to soil Truth's purity. 



jfonnttjii. 23 



ON PEISONS. 

In these base times when wealth controls 

our lands, 
And masses in a state of slavery dwell, 
How can poor men escape the prison cell, 
Who act according to their lives' demands ? 
When villains and officials make com- 
mands 
For virtue, and when rascals get reward 
For heinous deeds, then poverty is hard, 
And it must be repressed with iron bands. 

Lock up the man who steals a loaf of 
bread ! 

Exalt the man who steals a million dol- 
lars ! 

The prisons teach this with their brazen 
collars, 

As also do the palaces that shed 

Their sumptuous blessings on the rich, 
while, lo ! 

Before their gates the suffering toilers go, 

Who for it with their faithful labor paid. 



24 bonnet*. 



ON DKESS. 

Dress is a sign of inequality ; 

A means by which the rich degrade the 
poor ; 

A fashion rude, and barbarous, and im- 
pure ; 

A custom making vile hj^pocrisy 

A part and share of our civility ; 

A practice to delude the searching mind, 

So that it cannot see the truth, and find, 

In persons opulent, deformity. 

The wealth that's spent on dressing and 

on dress, 
Would keep the struggling, hungry world 

in food. 
Oh ! when will people like to clo what's 

good, 
Which is the easiest and asketh less 
Dissimulation and unhappiness 
Than ill, and follow nature's voice, and 

use 



#0tttt*t!9i. 25 

Their hair for clothing, which they now 
abuse, 

And cease their dangerous lies and fool- 
ishness ? 



26 £vmtt». 



ON HOMES. 

To gambling clubs and hells our young 

men rove, 
Who have no homes that 're worthy of 

the name ; 
And there their tastes wax morbid, and 

their shame 
Is deadened as they lose regard for love 
And all its kindred virtues which improve 
The character. And those who are too 

poor 
For these lax luxuries, tramp the streets 

demure, 
At war with all the world in which they 

move. 

They see the lighted mansions teem with 

joy, 

And long for it with A\ r eary hearts in 

vain ; 
Theirs is the fearful suffering and pain, 



bonnets'. 27 

Which pays for such excess. Their tears 

annoy 
The very pavements, as they try to buoy 
The feeble remnants of their hopeless 

lives 
Above the grave. Pleasures of homes and 

wives 
Cannot be theirs to cherish and enjoy. 



28 gomm. 



ON CHAKITY. 

There is a sort of kindness quite unkind, 
Which passes in the name of charity ; 
It helps the trade of lawful robbery, 
Assuaging all the pangs of guilty mind. 
It makes the poor to their condition blind, 
And hides them safely in their ignorance, 
While it secures the rich in arrogance, 
By making them seem gracious and re- 
fined. 

Our mystifiers of the right and wrong 
May fervently encourage it ; but he, 
And he alone, does sincere charity 
Who preaches socialism with a strong 
And mighty will ; who educates the 

throng 
Of sufferers to their powers and their 

rights ; 
Who publishes their errors, and incites 
Them to possess what does to them belong. 



gOMXtlfi. 29 



OlST A LADY'S HAND. 

That hand, which lies before my memory, 
Brings back to me gay pictures of romance. 
I see it holding in the pleasing dance 
The proudest courtiers of society. 
I see it when it points Avith majesty 
To some historic scene, or when it plays 
In wild and passionate and mournful maze, 
Upon some instrument of melody. 

I see that hand, exquisite in its grace, 
Deal out the cards, and play a wary game. 
I see it touch the lips of men of fame, 
Or pen sweet lines of love, or gently place 
A fragrant bunch of flowers in a vase. 
Alas ! all these ; but never do I see 
It soothe the weary brow of poverty, 
Or raise a fallen sister from disgrace. 



30 gVMtt$. 



THE CAUSE I PLEAD. 

I plead the cause of those whose long 

distress 
Disgraces every page of history ; • 
Who are downtrodden by humanity, 
And suffer by their want for the excess 
Of some few laughing fools in idleness ; 
Who starve in times of plenty ; Avhose sad 

tears 
And suicides and cares and toils and fears 
Are all too real and frightful to express. 

I plead the cause of right and liberty 
In a foul age of vile and ignorant men. 
I plead the cause of justice with a pen 
Which shall not cease against hypocrisy 
To write my honest thoughts until I die. 
I plead the cause of truth for which I live, 
In which I glory, and to which I'll give 
My life if need be that it may be free. 



Jfoimet*. 31 



ON UTOPISTS. 

There are some minds continually questing 
For that which will improve the strug- 
gling race ; 
They cannot help but see things mean 

and base 
Which daily our progress are molesting, 
And this so nags them that for their ar- 
resting 
They seek out methods in their fantasy. 
In this consists the growth of liberty, 
Which is the work of genius never resting. 

Out of the cruel blunders of the past, 
These searching thinkers show the way 

to live 
More perfect in the future, and receive 
The good which heretofore has gone to 

waste. 
They show that what is useless cannot 

last, 



32 $0Mtt$. 

And what is harmful cannot long exist ; 
They are the breakers of that heavy mist 
Which ever stands before us. dark and 
vast. 



jennet*. 33 



01ST BUSINESS. 

To cheat your neighbor and increase your 

store « 

Of property ; to steal as openly 
As custom will allow ; to always be 
Unmoved by any feelings ; to adore 
A kind of stuff which ignorance calls 

power, 
But wisdom gold : these damnable desires, 
Which brand all men involuntary liars, 
Are business, that base spirit of the hour. 

This legal kind of stealing makes the hell 
Which now we see around us ; 'tis the 

cause 
Of every evil act ; it saps and draws 
The race's virtue, forcing it to dwell 
In degradation. Let brave men rebel 
Against this common curse, and by its 

fall 
Make freedom for the people, one and all, 
And ring proud aristocracy's death knell. 

3 



34 Jfotttt*t& 



01ST THE LABOEEE. 

Who would be worthy of the name of man 
Must be a laborer. He must produce, 
Who is worth lining. He must be of use, 
Who would be lively. He must have some 

plan 
To make and form, who would be better 

than 
A non-existence. Man is nature's means 
For helping man ; his duties are the scenes 
Of labor when he's helping what he can. 

The laborer bears the burdens of the race, 
The hopes of marching life are in his toil. 
But what are they who o'er him stand and 

spoil 
His blessed name, and make him a disgrace 
In every quarter where he takes his 

place ? 
Oh ! what are they who mock him for his 

tears, 
Who live in idleness upon his years 
Of usefulness, and call him vile and base % 



%*Mtt$. 35 



ON SOCIALISM. 

Growth is capacity for happiness ; 
Capacity is our desire for it ; 
Desire brings wisdom teaching us to fit 
Ourselves to its conditions, and to press 
Toward Socialism, which is its success. 
Since progeny is immortality, 
The want of Socialism will not die 
Until it fills the earth with cheerfulness. 

All progresses are socialistic movements ; 
Inventions, thoughts, migrations, explora- 
tions 
Are invincible and mighty affirmations 
Of our advancement toward it. All im- 
provements 
Are unmistakable and certain currents 
Which bear us for it at tremendous speed. 
Let every man do well in thought and deed 
To usher in this greatest of events. 



36 £*nwttt. 



ON LOYE. 

The matching of the race for progeny 
Should be in temperament and not in 

wealth. 
Love is not salable nor caught ' by stealth, 
But given where nature gives it sympathy. 
It is our master-passion, and the key 
To life's most noble joy and sweetest bliss. 
It is the one thing which we can possess 
And seem possessing all infinity. 

How beautifully it fills the maiden's eye 
With soul, and harmony, and charming 

grace ! 
How it does soften in a young man's face 
Stray marks of boisterousness and vanity ! 
How it ignores all stern philosophy 
And acts at impulse ! How it makes one 

> say 
Things true but simple, and will have its 

way 
Where'er it findeth its affinity ! 



j$0Mtet0, 37 



ON EYESOEES. 

Some pauper-making multi-millionaire 
Strutting the street, and feeling earth' is 

his ; 
Gold, gold, debasing gold, controlling this 
Enlightened century ; the delicate snare 
Set by our human spiders for the fair 
And innocent ; those guilty, traitorous men 
In Congress, stabbing their own country, 

when 
They know the poor are starving in de- 
spair : 

All these are eyesores to a healthy eye, 
Foul, stinking blotches, feeding on the 

times, 
"Which foster maggots in the shape of 

crimes, 
And make earth sick with their obscenity. 
They poison and destroy sweet purity. 



38 jfrtmet*. 

The more they reek with filth they grow 

the bolder, 
And thus they grow more filthy, growing 

older, 
Infecting all the land with misery. 



JfottttCt*. 39 



ON WAHLVEKWAKDTSCHAFT. 

In combinations of the quality 

Of atoms in a thing consists its use. 

Whatever is were nothing and abstruse 

Without relation. The affinity 

Of matter is its cause. The sympathy 

Of molecules is force. The love and hate 

Of substance is the working of its state 

To greater power and ability. 

We like because 'tis nature to advance, 
And therefore must dislike what retro- 
grades. 
We feel existences in lights and shades, 
And broaden life by entering the expanse 
Of those which instincts teach us will 

enhance. 
We are creatures of condition and must see 
The affirmative and negative degree. 
Whatever is, is by its circumstance. 



40 jfotttttt*. 



ON THE FARMER. 

Beyond the crowds of health-infected men, 
Whose artificial lives are mad with care, 
He breathes the free and fragrant coun- 
try air, 
And sows the seed and reaps the golden 

grain. 
He knows not of that mind-corrupted pain 
Of dissipations which are the proceeds 
Of cities ; his is such a life as breeds 
Wholesome contentment for a homely 
brain. 

He stirs his fancy with the glowing fire, 
And leads his children o'er his boyhood's 

years 
With simple tales, oft ending through the 

tears 
Of naive affection ; or he sings in choir 
With all his family to his heart's desire ; 



£vmtt#. 41 

And when the night wind whispers in the 

trees 
He floats in happy dreams upon the 

breeze, 
All unaware of what his deeds inspire. 



42 jlonnete. 



ON SPECULATION. 

He who produces nothing is a drone, 
And has no right to live. He who works 

hard 
In making others' labor his reward, 
And holds it by our laws for him' alone, 
Is baser than a drone. A trade is known 
Among us by the name of Speculation ; 
It has the highest sanction of the nation, 
Yet, nonproducing, makes the land its 



This is the bane of these sad, weary times ; 

Times such as shame the earth on which 
we live. 

This makes the dreadful misery we re- 
ceive, 

And is the motor of our lies and crimes. 

It breathes its curse o'er rich and fertile 
climes, 

And they rejoice no more. It is the foe 

Of every honest man, and lays him low 

In the cold, gelid arms of death betimes. 



gm\xtt&. 43 



OK HISTOEY. 

We study history so as to avoid 
Its blunders in the future ; to protect 
Our race against destruction, to perfect 
Those longings which in us are much 

annoyed 
By heinous wrongs. Men's minds have 

been employed 
So long with dangerous foolishness that 

they 
Know hardly how to use them the right 

way, 
And seek for progress where they are not 

cloyed. 

The future is the object of the past. 
Thus what has been foretells that which 

shall be ; 
And they whose minds are on the dead 

foresee 
The living far ahead, and fathom vast 



44 $MM*t0. 

And unborn ages ; so their fame does last 
Unto those ages where they really live 
Ahead of time ; they are the men who 

give, 
And in their giving cannot be surpassed. 



£ttMtt#. 45 



ON WAR 

That brute called war hath still a charm 

for nations, 
And makes the vilest butchery seem sub- 
lime. 
It calls that heroism which is crime, 
And patriotism which by advocations 
Upholds its rank, atrocious violations ; 
It praises man for killing brother man, 
And makes him famous who contrives a 

plan 
To make it bloodier in its ruinations. 

The price of war is blood ; it does not bring 
A benefit that peace could not bring better. 
Its custom is most barbarous and a fetter 
To civilization. 'Tis an evil thing 
In whose pursuit no aspirations cling 
For progress. They of wise and mighty 

mind 
Teach parliaments and peace, and bid men 

fling 
Away this useless lust of murdering. 



46 gmmte. 



ON MAEEIAGE. 

The worlds and atoms have affinity, 
And so has man. It is his nature's law 
For his own preservation, and they flaw 
That nature who live in celibacy ; 
For woman's intercourse and sympathy 
Are all that make life worthy of its liv- 
ing; 
She moulds her man as man should be, 

by giving 
To him the noble love of progeny. 

This makes him have regard for all his 

ways, 
And live for something more than what 

he is. 
He feels in it his highest happiness, 
And sees his life live on beyond his days 
To ages of perfection. Woman sways 
The destiny of man and makes him great 
According to his love for her ; their state 
Is marriage, by which they exalt the race. 



Jfomwti*. 47 



ON KINGS. 

These gay mock heroes in a giddy dance, 
With other butterflies of their own stamp, 
Are still allowed the world's expanse to 

ramp 
And awe the people by extravagance, 
Which they pay for in humble ignorance. 
Forever be disgrace on him whose name 
Is King, who his authority doth claim 
From men whom he robs with imper- 
tinence. 

Such superstitious remnants of old sin — 
Thrones, scepters, royal robes, and royal 

crowns — 
Being hardly fit for ancient savage clowns, 
How much the less for times which we 

are in. 
Down with these drawbacks, and let earth 

begin 
To clean herself of all such trumpery ! 
The sway of nonsense, tinsel, foolery, 
Has palmed on us enough its brass and tin. 



48 JftftttUt*. 



ON CRIMINALS. 

When law is more than justice then is 

crime. 
A common curse. When they who would 

do good, 
And for their families gain a livelihood, 
Must have a license, and must handle 

slime, 
Who would be noble, virtuous, and sub- 
lime ? 
When lies and falsehoods supersede the 

truth, 
And wicked customs blind us from our 

youth, 
And gold is 'most too good to pay for 

time, 

Then are the felons men among man- 
kind, 
Martyrs and sufferers for a lofty cause, 
Regarders of demands of nature's laws. 



g(iMti$. 49 

Advancers of the freedom of the mind, 
Ennoblers of what's righteous and refined, 
Exemplars of a worthy type of man, 
Leaders and generals in the very van 
Of progress, whose accusers are purblind. 



50 go\mtt$. 



ON FLYING MACHINES. 

Man longs for everything conceivable 
To swell and broaden his environment ; 
His mind is ever striving to invent 
That which will all his former deeds excel, 
And make his history more respectable. 
His trne contentment lies in discontent, 
His pride is ever in a force unspent, 
By which he hopes to have the all in all. 

And as he sees the birds above him fly 
For their advantage, fancy brings the 

means 
How to do likewise with flying machines ; 
And in aspiring thoughts he sees the sky 
A-swarm with people whose dexterity 
Commands fleet wings which skim the 

earth with grace, 
And carry them about from place to place, 
In ease and pleasure and security. 



Jfotttttti*. 51 



ON DESIEE. 

Our gifts are our desires, and our strife 
For their fulfillment makes us what we 

are. 
Whate'er we love is ours, be it a star, 
A statue, book, an engine, or a wife ; 
For all things are material for life 
To work upon. Possession's in the mind, 
Not in the hand, and so we never find 
Our object, but the good in seeking, rife. 

That which we seek is always far beyond. 

Desire is the object of desire. 

The more we work for it and climb the 

higher, 
The more it ever makes us of it fond. 
It keeps us onward when we would 

despond 
And retrograde. It is the greatest law 
Which governs life ; its office is to draw 
Us to our opposites, in common bond. 



52 ^0Utt*t{9U 



ON LAW AND JUSTICE. 

Incased in starch and sweetened by per- 
fume, 

The flirting dandies of Society 

In languid ease behold the comedy. 

Music and mirth fill the enchanted room 

To lift those weakly, dainty hearts from 
gloom 

Of every serious, worthy, weighty thing. 

How hard with wealth and beauty do 
they wring 

Delusion thus ere they descend the tomb ! 

Outside the theatre in hungry bands 
Emaciated forms — hope-sick and sad, 
Careworn and weary, cold and poorly 

clad — 
Hear the dim melody while it expands 
Beyond the foyer, as from distant lands 
To which no bark for them does ever sail. 
The jeweled rich cross o'er that happy 

pale, 
But Law bids them " Stand back " with 

stern commands. 



Jfotttt*t& 53 



ON OUE MODEEJST LOYEES. 

Why must a man be something good for 

nothing 
So that a girl will love him ? Why ? oh, 

why? 
Because the age is foul with sham and lie, 
And therefore true and honest things are 

loathing. 
Heirs, dudes, cadets, who wear deceitful 

clothing r 
And dissipate, and flirt, and live for fun, 
Who crack away the night with joke and 

pun, — 
These are the heroes of our ladies' liking. 

Our modern lovers are a pretty piece 

Of tinsel in life's general tinsel fair. 

The way they show themselves is all their 

care. 
Lace, garters, silk, paint, etiquette, and 

grease 



54 ^0tttt£te, 

Are in their laboratories for increase 
Of admiration, praise, and courtesy. 
They saturate the times with them and vie 
In trifling with stern nature's health and 
peace. 



JfottrtetsL 55 



ON EIGHT. 

The scoundrels of the law whom we must 

serve 
And reverence, who murder liberty 
By selling free men into slavery, 
Who fashion words whereby poor people 

starve 
To please their greed for wealth, who will 

not swerve 
From their corruption, cannot do so long ; 
For Right protests against it loud and 

strong, 
And Eight ne'er failed its object to 

preserve. 

They always fail, who live for a bad cause, 
Because they are their own worst enemies. 
Eight is the natural course of life, and 

dies 
At no deceitful, inconsistent laws. 
It always will be, as it alwa}^s was, 
And they who try to hinder it are fools, 
Ignorant of all its solid, truthful rules, 
Stupid with blurs, and blemishes, and flaws. 



